• John Knopf, an Emmy Award-nominated landscape photographer and National Geographic employee, was an early adopter of the NFT space.
• Together with seven other prominent photographers, Knopf helped form FOTO, a collective that trains artists to work in Web3.
• Time magazine partnered with FOTO for their own NFT drops and featured Knopf’s work as well.

John Knopf: Emmy Award-Nominated Photographer

John Knopf is an Emmy Award-nominated landscape photographer who works for National Geographic and was an early adopter of the non-fungible token (NFT) space.

FOTO: Training Artists To Work In Web3

Knopf co-founded FOTO with seven other prominent photographers – Alejandro Cartagena, Ben Strauss, Cath Simard, Dave Krugman, Isaac „Drift“ Wright, J.N. Silva and Ravi Vora – to train artists to work in Web3. The collective now boasts hundreds of members of amateur and professional artists today.

Collaborating With Time Magazine

In 2021, Time magazine partnered with FOTO on its own NFT drops and featured Knopf’s work as well. The idea is to elevate digital art while making no money from the artists regardless of whether their work sells or not.

Turning An Industry Into A Community

Knopf said he initially joined crypto during the heady days of the NFT bull market thinking he could make a „quick buck,“ but quickly became enthralled with the potential of distributed networks which are all about elevating one another to advance the art form.

Conclusion

Good photography often requires technical skill as much as artistic sensibility making it uniquely fit for experimentation in Web3 .Through FOTO ,Knopf has been able to turn an industry into a community using crypto where digital art can be elevated without any monetary benefit from the creators .